Wednesday, December 19, 2007

KL shares down for 5th straight day

By Biz Times

MALAYSIAN share prices extended their losses for the fifth consecutive day today amid an overnight slump on Wall Street and continued concerns over the US economy.

At close, the Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI) declined 6.16 points or 0.44 per cent to 1,385.45 after opening 3.79 points lower at 1,387.82.

Property, construction and finance counters led the fall in the local bourse today, which touched an intra-day day low of 1,382.44, or down 9.17 points, dealers said.

There were some eleventh hour bargain-hunting in the lower liners but not sufficient to lift the overall bearish market, said one dealer.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Index fell for the second consecutive day overnight by 172.65 points to 13,167.2. Last Friday, it dropped 178 points.

The latest sell-off was triggered by renewed concern on the US economic growth on the back of uncertainty over the magnitude of subprime losses, financial impact on mortgage lenders, repricing of credit risk, sky-high crude oil price and weaker consumer spending, according to SBB Securities.

“Given the high degree of uncertainty, we doubt investors would stray too far from the sidelines, at least for now. The local bourse will likely take its cue from the US and regional market,” it said in its research report.

Immediate support and resistance has been put at 1,370 and 1,400 respectively.

The industrial and technology indices bucked the market trend today.
The Industrial Index jumped 14.77 points to 2,898.35 and the Technology Index perked 0.10 of a point to 2318. The Finance Index, meanwhile, fell 59.92 points to 10,556.6.

The FBMEmas dropped 46.42 points to 9,396.3 and the FBM30 went down 45.82 points to 8,945.94.

The FBM2BRD shed 9.44 points to 6,618.24 and the FBM-MDQ was 30.25 points lower at 5,872.34. Decliners led advancers by 440 to 319 while 351 counters were unchanged, 302 untraded and 26 suspended.

Volume amounted to 779.655 million shares worth RM1.611 billion, up from 719.414 million shares worth RM1.411 billion traded yesterday.

*Wait wait and wait! Den its time to go in! hehe..